Twitter

What is it?

Twitter is an online social networking site and micro blogging platform that connects people with similar interests and allows users to stay informed about the things they care about. Twitter is also a powerful tool for messaging your organization’s news, events and relevant information.

Start following people who would be interested in your organization and LMU key influencers, student leaders, prominent figures on campus and thought leaders in student affairs and your area’s related field.

Send your first tweet!

The anatomy of a tweet

Tweets are limited to 140 characters. These are called Tweets, not twits.

@ is attached to a Twitter username in order to identify Twitter users in tweets or in other social media. By using @username you can tag your tweet to the account’s feed (e.g. @LoyolaMarymount, @LMULions, @MyASLMU)The pound sign (#) is also called a hash; When a word or phrase is added directly after it (without spaces), it’s called a hashtag. Hashtags are used for grouping conversations in different feeds. Hash tags have started to be used in other social media as a way to arrange conversations. Hash tags also allow you to say more in your tweet while staying under the 140 character cap although they do count towards your 140 character count. (e.g. #LionLife, #LMU, #kittenstolions, #LMUiLEAD) Learn more about hash tags below.RT means ReTweet. You can retweet a tweet from another Twitter user which will then make the original tweet show up in your Twitter feed and your followers feeds.

Quote Tweet You can quote a tweet by selecting quote tweet in the twitter application. This allows you to quote a tweet and add your own characters or additional handles to the tweet.

Reply is exactly what it sounds like! You can reply to a Tweet and participate in a conversation with others on Twitter this way. Remember your replies can be seen in your Twitter feed and feeds of mutual friends.

DM means Direct Message. You can message another user privately by using this function.

Best Practices

What makes a good Tweet?

Use a consistent voice that represents your brand effectively.

Use hash tags and tweet @ other LMU handles or others in the Twitter-sphere as appropriate.

For some student organizations and departments humor might be appropriate, others might want to stick to disseminating information.

Use hash tags for events and when contributing to conversation threads in the Twitter-verse.

You can use hashtags throughout your tweet and in a sentence. They can be shortened thoughts or existing hashtags.

Use hash tags to engage students in conversation before, during or after your event, announce your created hash tag at the beginning of the event or in a promotional campaign. The hash tag related to the event will enable backchannel Twitter discussions before, during and after your event.

You can also use hash tags for external conversations on Twitter. There are several trending hash tags or hash tags that may be appropriate for your student affairs related field.

Find the right people to follow.

Follow people with like interests or who are in your target audience.Start following friends by going to the @connect tab in the top left and entering a @username or full name. You can also find friends or colleagues to follow by clicking on Browse Categories or Find Friends in the Who to Follow box screen left. By clicking Find Friends you can search your email for contacts that are on Twitter. Browse categories allows you to find users to follow who share the same interests of your department or organization. If you search for LMU you can find all of the Twitter accounts with LMU in the username. You can follow them and also browse their followers or whom they are following to find others to follow.

The more people you follow and the more you tweet the more followers you will be able to secure. However you need to be strategic in whom you follow.